Report: Priest abuse info guarded

LAWRENCE — Years after reforms designed to make the Roman Catholic Church more forthcoming about sexual abuse by its priests, Kansas dioceses still keep information from the public, the Lawrence Journal-World reported Wednesday.

The newspaper said a two-year investigation, conducted with local cable television station 6News, found several dozen cases of alleged sexual abuse by priests stretching back to the 1950s.

But the investigation couldn't determine the extent of the problem because church officials provided only limited information, the Journal-World said.

Officials with all four Kansas dioceses Dodge City, Salina, Wichita and the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan. declined to be interviewed about abuse cases. The Wichita diocese declined to name priests accused of abuse, even if they've since died.

The lack of information continues to frustrate victims' advocates and people who say they were abused by priests. They contend the church needs to disclose more to the public including the names of abusive priests.

"Our name is as good as theirs," said Dean Albert, who alleges that he and his siblings were abused in the 1950s while living at a Catholic orphanage in El Dorado. "When there are names drawn into the story, it makes it more real."

In reforms outlined in its 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the church states that it is to be "open and transparent" in dealing with the public about sexual abuse.

The Wichita diocese declined to provide the names of priests involved in 22 allegations of abuse since 2002. The Kansas City archdiocese provided information about cases involving 12 priests, but not a total for the number of allegations lodged.

The Salina and Dodge City dioceses provided detailed information about three priests, but no other cases.

Teresa Kettelkamp, director of the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, said the Kansas dioceses' lack of response to requests for information was not in line with the intent of the reforms.

"This is not what we expected," Kettelkamp told the Journal-World. "Why not? If there are other victims, it's important to get the name out."

Priests and others contend the Kansas church is seriously addressing sexual abuse issues.

The Kansas City archdiocese said it has trained nearly 25,000 people in spotting and preventing sexual abuse and has spent more than $400,000 on such training since 2003.

"It's a whole culture of awareness," said Andrew Strobl, a priest serving in Olathe. "We're outraged at what happened."

But victims and victims' advocates remain skeptical.

The Journal-World and 6News pulled details about cases of individual priests who served in Kansas from criminal cases involving those priests or civil lawsuits against them. Among those lawsuits is one filed by the Albert family in 1996.

The newspaper said other cases never reach the courts because of the statute of limitations three years past a child's 18th birthday for civil cases and five years for criminal cases in Kansas. The Alberts' case was dismissed for that reason, and the Wichita diocese hasn't acknowledged any abuse at the El Dorado orphanage.

Brian Brown, a 38-year-old New Mexico prison inmate, said he was abused while serving as an altar boy in a Topeka church in the 1980s and wants the church to pay for counseling. Brown, serving time for kidnapping and the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl, believes his life went off track because of the abuse.

"I want them to recognize that this person did these things," he told the Journal-World in a telephone interview from prison.

The Kansas City archdiocese said the priest Brown named had been accused of abuse and removed from the clergy. But it declined to provide details about where he served.

Victims' advocate Janet Patterson, whose son committed suicide after alleging he was abused by a Wichita priest who later went to prison, said the Catholic Church is conducting only a "PR campaign," and information has to be pulled out of it.

"They haven't begun to be honest," she said. "It's like chronicling a criminal conspiracy."

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Why does the church protect the child molesters? Do these animals have more rights than others because they belong to the church? It's absolutely sickening that as long as the church protects them, there will not be any true justice for the victims and their families.

Quoted: "The Kansas City archdiocese said it has trained nearly 25,000 people in spotting and preventing sexual abuse and has spent more than $400,000 on such training since 2003."

Yes this statement has come out of every single Bishop in every U.S. diocese, and it is a rude awakening for devout catholics and for victims catholic clergy, that "YES" this is a PR stunt. The church official want us to believe they care about victims and that they care about kids. BUT, it has become clear they care about neither, only about keeping themselves out of jail for covering up crimes against kids.

In fact their child protection policy can NOT work, because those who have protected the predator priests still have not been held accountable. They continue to protect predator priests and employees.

What about all those predator clergy who are still working in the dioceses? If there are none, then why wouldn't the bishops release all names of credibly accused clergy? Why not? Could it be because they have way too much to hide? Could it be that they are still not telling us the truth? Could that be the reason that none of the Kansas diocese leaders responded to this news article?

Yes, the way the catholic hierarchy handles the abuse issue is by keeping quiet !!

As usual the Catholic Church is blatantly hiding the crimes and the criminals from the public. Who does this benefit? Only the clergy predators. They are allowed to continue living a life without punishment, accountabilty, or remorse.
The Dioceses involved typically have no shame, or decency, and mock the justice system, and the victims. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church is so used to being above the law, that they scoff in the face of decency and morality, by hiding the names of dangerous men who are still enabled to have access to children, and show no conscience. This is sociopathic behavior, the exact behavior that has allowed the child molesters to continue molesting in the Catholic Church for hundreds of years, without fear of punishment.
Why doesn't the Diocese cave to pressure by victims and parents of vulnerable children right now and give the names of the predators to the public? Because many of the predators still in the church are protected by the Bishops and Cardinals who were involved in the abuse crimes and coverups themselves. The Bishops can not release their names, for fear of being exposed themselves for their own dirty deeds. The Bishops have protected, shuffled, and sheltered predators as long as predators have been abusing children. The disgrace continues, and the protection of predators is foremost in the Church, and this story is one of thousands more just like it.
Shame on the Pope,Cardinals, and Bishops, and predatory clergy all over the world. The Mammoth Molestation Machine still thrives.
Joey Piscitelli